The problem of initial surge of liquid from the neck of a bottle, especially a liquor bottle and that of the key problem of preventing the refilling of quality, high priced liquor bottles have attracted many solutions exhibiting varying degrees of success. It is estimated that the illegal refilling in pouring locations and homes of quality liquor bottles costs the distillers of quality liquor millions of dollars in deserved income each year. Through substitution, plus the absolute fact that the consumer is served a substitute in process, proving there is consumer fraud involved in every case. Although many devices or fitments have been developed to prevent deception through watering of liquor or illegal refilling of liquor bottles, few, if any, of these devices have experienced use or production for various reasons.
For instance, the Fisher U.S. Pat. No. 2,337,549 discloses a plastic-anti refill device which uses a ball that cooperates with a seat. The ball is carried in a cage formed by cementing multiple parts together. The body of the cage is provided with a set of thin-edged fins that engage the inside neck of the bottle.
The Fisher device can be pushed into the bottle for re-filling where it becomes visual evidence of such an act and any attempt to extract it from the neck of bottle results in its damage. Fisher solved the problem of making a device that can be used with different neck sizes of bottles and eliminates the necessity of using cement to hold the device in the neck of the bottle.
The particular problem of pilfering of liquor or re-filling a bottle with low quality, low cost substitute liquor after it is empty is attacked by Klewer in U.S. Pat. No. 2,800,239. Klewer provides a stopper with a metal tube having an outer cork mantle and an inner plastic mantle which forms one piece with a head-like upper part of the device that closes the upper end of the tube. Tenion-like projections connect the tube with the upper part or head and a disjunctive disc is provided between the cork mantle and the head, which disconnects the two parts upon extraction from the neck of a bottle. This makes it impossible to re-use the severed stopper. As long as the stopper remains unbroken, a purchaser can be assured that the bottle has its original contents.
Other patents (Musel U.S. Pat. No. 3,063,589, Webb U.S. Pat. No. 4,043,473; Hagen U.S. Pat. No. 3,263,849 and Miller U.S. Pat. No. 3,399,811) show various forms of non-refillable pouring spouts.
Close examination of some of these prior art devices reveals that it is possible for the unscrupulous to insert a long pin and hold the valve member in the open position so that low quality liquor or other liquid can be introduced into the neck of the bottle. Also in some of these devices, the means by which the initial surge of liquor through the device is inhibited does not always do the best job and spilling of the liquor results.